About Us

Serendipity worked out pretty well for Ryan and Tatiana Brenizer. Both wedding photographers with more than 10 years experience each and more than 1,000 weddings between them, they didn’t mean to fall in love with the photographer whose work and style fit most seamlessly with theirs … it just kind of happened. Realizing that they loved not just each other but the work they produced together, and that they are one of those weird couples who like being around each other literally all the time, they decided to merge their business in 2016, giving a two-for-one effort for clients not just on the wedding day, but with service and communication throughout the entire planning process and beyond.

Ryan comes from a photojournalistic background, having covered each U.S. president since Clinton. During his coverage, he has been blessed by the Pope, stared down by Muhammad Ali, manically gained at by Stephen Colbert, and had his photos of Smokey Robinson featured the in Kennedy Center lifetime tribute ceremony. He teaches wedding photography in lectures and workshops around the globe, with a specialty in “what to do when everything goes wrong.” He is ranked as one of the Top 10 Wedding Photographers in the World by the two top industry magazines, American Photo and Rangefinder.

Tatiana has worked in essentially every aspect of the photography field, from editorial portraiture to corporate product campaigns, but found her love in weddings more than a decade ago. She has an extremely long list of overjoyed clients, with a lifetime perfect 5.0 customer service score, and a tradition of amazing photojournalism and innovative, playful portraits.

Together, Ryan and Tatiana are the only independent photographers to document the U.S. presidential candidates the last time they meet before the election, and have photographed weddings around the world, including Chile, Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Ireland, the Bahamas, and many more, as well as essentially every street corner in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Pricing

We know that weddings can be stressful — especially since we had three different weddings to each other! We want to make the process as simple and stress-free as possible, not just in our mannerisms but in our business model as well. Our packages are extremely simple and do away with hidden costs, always including normally cost-inflating items like two super-experienced photographers and full-resolution non-watermarked photos.

All wedding packages include:
Two-photographer coverage with Ryan and Tatiana Brenizer
Your own password-protected and customized Web site
A preview of photos soon after the wedding
A carefully edited, comprehensive full set, with each delivered image edited in color AND black and white
All files in high resolution for instantaneous download -- no watermarks, and full personal usage

We also offer a wide range of extras, from engagement shoots (which come with a $500 print credit for couples who book a wedding with us) to a hilarious and fun portable photo studio. Any physical products sold by our studio are guaranteed to be awesome, and if they come from the printer not-awesome for some reason, we send it back and make sure it is awesome.

Full price-sheet available upon request.

Featured in PDN again (On Gay Marriage)

July 8, 2011

The good folks at PDN have published my work and interviewed me again with a nice update about the business side of gay marriage. I should have mentioned that I’m in Manhattan proper these days, not Westchester, and that I don’t know whether or not my phone has been ringing with gay-wedding inquiries because during peak season my assistant handles most of the initial inquiry e-mails, but it’s a great piece and I’m always happy to be featured there.

I try to maintain a “dinner-table atmosphere” in my public dealings these days. Growing up in an Irish family where no one was shy about voicing their opinion, you soon learned that there was lots of stuff you could talk about and have a grand ol’ time, even in your disagreements. Then there were things that would lead to anger and hurt feelings … and then there were things that would lead to conversational Armageddon (like making fun of the Jets). I have friends, family, and fantastic clients along all points of the political spectrum, and have always sought meaningful conversations instead of point-scoring, because let’s face it — talk to anyone long enough, and eventually they will say something that you think is downright looney-tunes. But I have never been shy about my belief that gay people should have the same rights and responsibilities as everyone else.

Or, in other words: Dear awesome gay couples. There is only one NYC photographer who has been featured for gay marriage in PDN and the American, international, and Japanese editions of Newsweek. Let me document your awesomeness.

Anyway, even though I tend to avoid controversial subjects, this is something that is not only near and dear to my heart, but central to what I do as a documentarian of people and relationships. While it doesn’t take the same sort of courage to be pro-gay marriage when you’re running a business out of Manhattan as it does in, say, Alabama, we are at a strange point where self-publishing photographers are minor-but-international public figures. Google Analytics tells me that one of my biggest fan bases is in Malaysia, for example, and one of my previous gay-marriage postings was viciously attacked by a government official from the Sudan.

When I first shot a gay wedding, I expected the experience to be similar to any other great wedding. There are slight differences in what sort of poses will look good, but that’s true from couple to couple as well. But there was an extra intensity to the emotion throughout the room, and I think I know why. I always try to let people’s history inform the shots I take. I fight for that perfect mother-son dance shot even if I’ve taken 200 before, because I know that she has spent decades thinking about just this moment. Well, for a while at least, when you shoot a gay wedding you are photographing people who grew up thinking that this whole wedding thing could never happen for them. That all the connection, the public displays, the meaningful vows, the celebrations, everything I adore about weddings — that these things could only happen to other people.

And then, finally, the doors opened to them.

That is what makes me an ardent supporter. That is why I’ve made sure to have a gay-wedding photo in my front-page portfolio ever since — because I’ve talked to gay couples about their shame and anger when they meet a photographer who photographs gay weddings but won’t display them proudly out of fear. Sometimes things are worth a little courage.

I was shooting a wedding when New York passed the gay marriage law. My fantastic (and gay) assistant Erica had been following the news closely, but while the state Senate was in deliberations, the reception was hopping like you’ve never seen, so we lost track. I mean, we’re talking three inches of wine sloshing on the floor and no one cared — I can’t wait to show it to you. When we got a quick break, I pulled her aside and said “Hey, what happened with the bill?”

She pulled out her Blackberry. “It passed. IT PASSED!” High fives and hugs. Thank God for autofocus, because her eyes filled with tears.

She tapped a gay couple on the shoulder. “It happened. Gay marriage is legal.”

They stared, “What … just now?” More celebration.

I mentioned it to another guest whose wedding I had photographed, and we high-fived. It spread like a ripple of excitement in an already raucous reception.

I don’t care about the politics. I don’t care about trying to score points and argue with someone who believes differently from me — my grandfather is one of my greatest role models and favorite people, and let’s just say he felt differently about the issue. What I care about is that feeling, that joy, that incredible connection. That is what I seek to capture and I’m so glad that so many more people can experience it now.

Jessica Schilling-So beautifully written that I’m wiping tears away at my desk at work. Looking forward to seeing even more of your amazing photos of all these upcoming weddings that have been put on hold for too long!

gerry -Congratulations, i’m not gay and i live in France where gay marriage has been banned recently.
Why is there such a fear of gay marriages or gay people in general ? Fear (of what ?).
Bravo for what i consider a courageous act : shooting and showing a social event beautifully photographed as always ! i’d very much like to see more of it, how you treated the subject, any difference in what you shot with a “traditional” marriage ?
keep on the good work

Ben Godkin-Great post Ryan! Hopefully this will be a growing trend and people won’t be afraid of it.

Tom-That’s exactly it. My husband and I got married in DC last July. We had never, ever thought it would be possible. I know every couple feels special on their wedding day, but it’s hard to describe the feeling of goodwill we experienced. We’ve now been to a total of four same-sex weddings, and that extra-emotional quality was there, too.